The month-long Season of Creation launched quietly across Canada on the World Day of Prayer for Creation, Sept. 1.

During a recent Daily TV Mass, the homilist mentioned Ignatius Loyola, the saint who used to speak of finding God in all things. Hearing that got me thinking about my garden. As far as I’m concerned, nowhere is the work of His hands more evident than in the birds, blooms and bugs that make the garden a place of delight.

The Season of Creation, which began Sept. 1 and lasts through the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi Oct. 4, has always been a time for prayer, reflection and thanksgiving, a time to open our eyes and see the beauty of God’s creation. But this year our prayers are meant to spur action — concerted, global, political action.

The Season of Creation, on Sept. 1 through to the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi Oct. 4, has the wholehearted support of Canada’s bishops, said Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops spokesperson Lisa Gall.

OTTAWA -- Religious and social justice groups are promising to make environmental justice initiatives the focus of a month-long celebration of creation following a plea by Pope Francis to better protect the environment, respect Indigenous communities around the globe and listen to the concerns of young people.

The word “jubilee” suggests a joyous celebration, but that is hardly the context for the theme Pope Francis has put on this year’s Season of Creation.

VATICAN CITY -- Catholics will mark the World Day of Migrants and Refugees during the ecumenical celebration of the Season of Creation, highlighting the obligation, as Pope Francis says, to listen to the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor, said Canadian Cardinal Michael Czerny.

Seventy-six-year-old great grandmother Patricia Timson is appalled at the low level of Catholic participation in this month’s Season of Creation — a liturgical observance beginning with the World Day of Prayer for Creation on Sept. 1, endorsed and promoted by Pope Francis since 2015.

VATICAN CITY -- "Now is the time to abandon our dependence on fossil fuels and move, quickly and decisively, toward forms of clean energy," Pope Francis said as he marked the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation.

As celebrations for the Season of Creation unfolded over the past month, I was struck by two vastly different experiences: one life-giving, the other literally toxic.

Another Canadian Catholic institution has joined in the movement to sell off all carbon-based energy stocks and forbid portfolio managers from buying any more.

Canadians take water for granted. We have more ocean shoreline than any nation on Earth and our freshwater lakes and rivers cover almost 12 per cent of Canada’s landmass.

Catholics might finally be ready to pray for the most obvious sign of God’s goodness that has ever been seen, touched or walked through — the natural world.